New York City, Ground Up:
The built, the virtual, the bizarre, the wonderful.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Holy Bricks and Mortar, Batman!

New York magazine wraps it all up and puts a pretty bow on top: Every New York development real and imagined that's ever been bandied about is summarized in the June 5 issue. The magnitude of it all is pretty astonishing, and some of it will actually get built. But this self-described "cautiously opstimistic" collection of articles doesn't even cast a skeptical eye towards Ground Zero. What's more, it's become the contrarian fashion to say Robert Moses wasn't so evil and Jane Jacobs' ideas weren't all that. The irony is too rich to be making this intellecutally lazy point while promoting the wonders of something like 20 million square feet of new development, the vast majority of which will benefit only the wealthest New Yorkers. And mark my words, the wonderful things closest to and for the little people -- such as the East River Park -- will take the longest to get built, if at all.